So far, a pair of drive units in a battery forklift as shown in FIG. 19 include a left and a right drive case 82 and 82, respectively, which are fastened to the body 81 of a forklift, the left and right drive cases 82 and 82 having a pair of drive motors 83 and 83 fastened thereto, respectively, which are opposed to each other. And, in the left and right drive cases 82 and 82, the motor shaft 84 of each of the left and right drive motors 83 and 83 is fitted with a first gear 85 which is meshed with a second gear 86 which is in turn connected via a plurality of gears to a carrier 87 so that power generated by the drive motor 83 is transmitted via the first and second gears 85 and 86 and the other gears to the carrier 87. And, the carrier 87 has a hub 88 fastened thereto and the hub 88 has a wheel 90 mounted thereon and fitted with a tire 89.
Also, the left and right drive motors 83 and 83 have dry single disc brakes 91 and 91 fitted thereto, respectively, at their sides which are opposed to each other, so as to be braked by the dry brakes 91 and 91. Further, the left and right drive motors 83 are controlled by a controller so as to be synchronously operated.
As mentioned above, a pair of drive units for the conventional battery forklift in which left and right drive motors have dry single disc brakes fitted thereto at their sides which are opposed to each other, have required a large space between the left and right drive motors for receiving the dry single disc brakes which are large, thus presenting the problem that the drive units as a whole must become large sized. Especially, giving rise to the problem that the size must become large in the left-and-right direction that is widthwise of the vehicle body, there has been a hindrance to making vicinities of drive units compact in a battery forklift.